~Sunday~ I woke up to lots and lots of snow. The obligatory neighborhood snow pictures:
The Nematomobile (My Car)
(That’s it in the middle of the pic with just the edge of the front bumper exposed.)
Townhouses Across the Way from Mine
I’m glad there are people who find joy in all this snow. I’m going on record as a curmudgeon by saying that I think it’s nothing but a nuisance and an inconvenience. I’m just grateful that my power hasn’t gone out yet.
I made an omelet with a little bit of leftover sausage I had yet, and it’s rare that I have milk around to “fluff up” the eggs with when beating them for my omelet, so most times I add just a little bit of water, if anything. However, today it occurred to me that I could use some of that most delicious NC State Howling Cow Eggnog for that purpose.
Oh what a yummy, yummy sausage and cheese eggnog omelet I had! I highly recommend it!
I mostly hung around the house today, although I did call the gym to see if they were open. I took the no answer as a no.
At about 5:00, I did step outside and removed the six or seven inches of snow off my car. Just before I went out there, a very small and light-weight car was stuck trying to go up the icy hill that we live on, and a boy of probably 13 or 14 was out there with a snow shovel shoveling in front of and behind its owner’s tires.
It finally made it out, and then he asked me if I was going to leave or if I was just clearing my car. Once I told him I was just going to move it out to Kaplan street, he started shoveling a path from each of my rear tires to facilitate my backing out. Then he told me that if I started up the hill, but couldn’t make it that I could just back back in and head down the hill instead of up it.
I thanked him, but I assured him that with the weight, front-wheel drive, and in low gear, my car was not going to have any trouble getting up the hill. I stopped short of saying, “Kid, I’ve owned this townhouse since before you were born and I’ve been through several snowstorms here. I know how this gig works, which is precisely why I’m moving my car off this treacherous hill before nightfall when it will turn into an ice slide.” It’s either stay parked here and risk not being able to get out for potentially days, or move it out to Kaplan where I’ll definitely be able to come and go tomorrow.
I was amazed, and very thankful that my power stayed on the entire night, especially since Robert had reported that a tree limb brought a power line down from his house to the road, but it had ripped the connection off the side of his house in such a way that Duke power wasn’t response for it, so couldn’t repair it. He ended up spending the night at a friend’s house.
I’d also read plenty of status updates on Facebook of friends and acquaintances who were without power. Did I mention this weather being a nuisance and an inconvenience?
I read a nice chunk of The Help tonight, and I think it’s perhaps turned a corner in terms of finally drawing me in. Let’s hope so.
At about 10:15PM, I slowly and carefully ventured downtown to Flex for scareyoke. The main roads, namely Avent Ferry, Western Boulevard, and Hillsborough Street were all perfectly clear, just a little wet, and no “black ice” to speak of.
There were surprisingly fewer people out than I thought there’d be, with the saving grace being Glenn, albeit he was like Santa with a continuous flow of boys sitting on his lap and asking for god knows what.
This rather rough looking guy—who had been at the bar next to three other people who from their body language (i.e., continuously turning their backs to him) I could tell were trying to lose him—approached me, and leaning into me, smelling like an absolute ashtray, asked, “Do you know what time it is?”
He kept his graying goatee and ball-capped head just a little too much up in my personal space while I got my phone out of my pocket. “I think it’s about 11:00,” I said.
“11:00? It can’t be 11:00. I just left Garner and it was 9:00. It can’t be 11:00 already,” he muttered.
I navigated to my clock icon so he could see the really big numerals clearly: “11:03,” it said.
“Damn.”
I turned my back to him to talk to Glenn, and kept it that way, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that he wasn’t leaving. I kept waiting for him to ask me to buy him a drink, but he never did that.
At one point this very effeminate guy was singing, slightly off key, and he leaned back into me with his butt smell, and said, “That guy’s hot. And not only is he hot, he’s got a great voice.”
“Yeah, well, that’s his boyfriend over there,” I said nodding my head in his direction.
“Yeah, well I don’t give a damn if he’s got a boyfriend; I’d still fuck him.”
Alrighty then. Look at the time. “So, Glenn…”
With the few number of people that were there, it wasn’t long before the rotation of singers started over, and I told Glenn, “I’m about done with this. I was going to go see the midnight show at Legends. You interested?”
Since he has a VIP membership to Legends, he gets in free whenever he goes there, and evidently he can take in one guest free with him. He offered to stop over and go in with me so I wouldn’t have to pay, and then decide if he’d stay through the show, with his Plan B being heading back to Woody’s at City Market, where he’d left a couple of friends drinking earlier, and he was sure they’d be there until 2:00.
When we got to Legends there were only two cars there to speak of, which presumably belonged to drag queens. It wasn’t even clear to me if they were open. I thanked Glenn for going over there with me, but said I was just going to head home. And he, presumably, headed back to Woody’s.
I was out just long enough to break my cabin fever. I read some more when I got home. And was thankful once I did turn out the lights, that they were still on to turn off.